ONE LITTLE nugget came at the System Builder Summit last week when the AMD executives mentioned Microsoft’s Brian Valentine, seemingly out of the blue.
The firm produced a Powerpoint slide in which Valentine is quoted as saying: "The simultaneous availability of AMD64 dual core processors and Windows x64 editions represents a huge performance leap and much greater value for Microsoft customers. Microsoft congratulates AMD on its leadership in delivering innovative technologies to the market."

Why would Microsoft, a loyal partner of Intel, go out of its way to praise the smaller microprocessor company? It’s an open secret that some years back both AMD and Microsoft cooperated on the development of the AMD64 platform, through the grace of Dave Cutler, formerly of DEC.

Without drawing too many little lines connecting the different people together, Cutler’s former boss, DEC CEO Bob Palmer, is now a director on AMD’s board. Dirk Meyer is, of course also a senior figure in AMD management as well as being an ex-employee of DEC and closely connected with the Alpha microprocessor team.

Sometimes you just have to wonder how this cosy relationship is regarded by Intel. Surely Intel must be livid at Microsoft for treating it this way?

In fact, Intel has many reasons to be livid at other partners than just Microsoft. Dell is now doing so well for Intel that in many ways it must feel it has all of its eggs in one Round Rock basket, we suspect. µ

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